Rabat – Morocco’s judicial police in the northern province of M’diq arrested on Wednesday a potential pedophile for allegedly attempting to lure a 6-year-old girl.
The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) announced on Thursday that the suspect is a 27-year-old homeless man.
Citizens caught the suspected pedophile trying to lure the child in the Hay Salam district of M’diq, 76 kilometers from Tangier, according to the same source.
A crowd surrounded the man, preventing him from fleeing before police arrived at the scene. Security members managed to arrest the suspect thanks to the concerned citizens.
Further investigations led to the arrest of the suspect’s acquaintance, a 27-year-old man who is also homeless.
After police entered the acquaintance’s information in the national criminal database, authorities found out that the man is subject to a search warrant in the eastern Moroccan city of Oujda, where he received a criminal sentence in the past.
M’diq police put the alleged pedophile and his acquaintance in custody, at the disposal of the public prosecutor’s office for further investigation to determine the veracity of the allegations and the motives of the criminal acts.
Since the kidnapping, rape, and murder of 11-year-old Adnane Bouhouf last month in Tangier, several cases of sexual assault and attempted assault against minors have made headlines in Morocco. The public rise in pedophilia cases has sparked outrage among Moroccans who are demanding the maximum penalties against child abusers.
Thousands of Moroccans called for the execution of the pedophile who killed Adnane Bouchouf, citing Article 474 of Morocco’s penal code, which stipulates that the kidnapping of a minor is punishable with the death penalty if the victim dies.
Other recent cases of crimes against children include the death of a 5-year-old girl named Naima from the southwestern city of Zagora. Naima had been missing since August 17 before a shepherd found remains of her body on September 26 in a mountainous area far from her home.
Her official cause of death is still under investigation, but on September 30, police arrested a man in the Khenifra province of the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region who is suspected of killing the girl.
